Tag Archives: bottle babies

Tenille on the left, and Captain on the right, the two bottle goat babies who found a new home today

Today we reached two milestones. The first was that we finally have found a home for Betsy’s bottle babies. It was a bittersweet goodbye, but we know they are going to a good home with people who love their goaties, and we also know that it is the best thing for their mother, Betsy. They were on the bottle 3 times a day, but they also never gave her a moment’s peace and were on her udder constantly. I just don’t think I can get her back into any kind of good condition while those growing babies take just about everything she has to give. And so it is a good ending for this part of the spring story.

No more tube-feeding! I am packing this away for another year :*)

The second milestone has to do with our little 2+ pound Peanut girl. Yesterday as she was tap-tap-tapping her way around the living room, she began to nose up to things and try sucking. So we tried, and tried to get her on the bottle (to put an end to the tube feeding party that we have been having). She was sucking our fingers like crazy, but would not, under any circumstances, get on the bottle. We tried all our little tricks, but it was a no go. So by 11 PM, I was ready to scream, and my husband said he would help me. (He had also been sitting with the little one and trying to get her to take the bottle, he sometimes does better than I do with getting them started on the teat, usually). He put his hand gently over her eyes and held her head straight, gently, and she went right onto the nipple and has not really looked back. Phew! I couldn’t believe it! She had had a brief moment in the early afternoon when I got the bottle in there and she had sucked up about an ounce, but after that it seemed to be a no-go until this.

Peanut in her little tote house, inside the real tub!

Anyway, we got up this morning and I tucked that little one into the chair beside me, got her little mouth open, and off she went, having herself a nice little meal. I am still feeding her goat’s milk with colostrum powder, as I know she didn’t get much from her mother, if anything, but I will taper the colostrum powder off in the next few days.

Almost naptime with Sam

Big sigh of relief! We had to go to our annual pigeon club meeting today, and since she has figured out how to get out of her rubbermaid tote, we had to put her into our jacuzzi tub with lots of towels, and her tote, while we were gone (although Sam had her out of there most of the day, and she even spent some time napping with him!).

All in all, a good day. And the weather cooperated and almost felt like spring, as well!

The blondie in the back is the buck, and miss red head in the front is the doe. Cute as button!

And here we go! Battie did not show up for her afternoon suppertime, and at the time, we didn’t notice until everything was over. I was feeding the bottle lambs, and Sam was doling out the grain. When we looked in the other greenhouse, there lay Battie, facing the corner, not doing much. This was about 2:30 PM.

Battie’s doe and buck

We watched her for awhile, and then we went back to the house. I got into the bathtub and soaked for awhile, but when I was getting dressed, I noticed Sam jogging up the driveway. Not a good sign! He had heard Battie bellowing up in the greenhouse, and guessed what was going on. He got there just as her buckling hit the ground. He got her moved into a jug, and that’s when her little red doeling came dropping in. (We actually thought the doeling wasn’t a viable baby. She was flat as a pancake, wasn’t moving, and wasn’t breathing). We got her nose cleared off and there she was, right as rain. Little spitfire!

Another 9 or 10″ of snow yesterday. No foot paths for the goaties first thing this morning

I wasn’t really expecting Battie to be due for another two weeks. When I put Reddog in with my group on October 12, I knew that he had been all over Battie, but he also seriously bred her for a full day almost 3 weeks later. So I had the second date on my calendar. Just goes to show you, you never can tell!

On another note, we took Betsy’s babies away from her this morning. Every time she got up, both of them were at her and never let her have a minute of non-nursing. I put them in the jug right next to her, so they can stick their heads through the panel and chat, but no milkies. I don’t think I have ever been given the stink eye from a goat the way Betsy gave me one this morning, but I think in the long run it’s going to be better. She stared at them morosely for a few hours, and by early this afternoon, she was frantically eating hay. And when all the hullaballoo started with Battie, she couldn’t contain herself, standing with her front hooves on the panel, watching and trying to see what was happening. That’s more like most goats I know! Noseybodies, one and all. When I went out to bottle feed her babies at 7 PM, she was still ravenously attacking her hay, and the babies were just happily cuddled up in a corner of their pen. I actually had to wake them up. So I think things are progressing well. I just have my fingers crossed that Betsy keeps moving forward with her nutrition.

What a day! I think a glass of wine is in order! Someone else is doing the 11 PM bottle feeding tonight. That’s a huge gift :*)